HOUSTON, TX—A beautiful bilingual children’s picture book celebrating rivers and the life found along them, Arenas y trinos: Abecedario del río / Sand and Song: The ABCs of the River, is the recipient of a 2021 Skipping Stones Honor Award.
Skipping Stones: An International Multicultural Magazine, an award-winning resource in multicultural and global education, publishes art and original writings in every language and from all ages. The winners of its 38th annual book awards promote an understanding of cultures, cultivate cooperation and encourage a deeper awareness of nature, ecology and diversity.
Acclaimed children’s book author Alma Flor Ada and her daughter Rosalma Zubizarreta-Ada share short poems about rivers in this book with gorgeous illustrations by Gabhor Utomo. There are odes to cicadas, dragonflies, butterflies, fish, frogs and birds, and the poems brim with the beauty of the natural world and the joy found in the great outdoors. There are stars that bathe in the river, the sun that hides behind the mountain and a stream that wraps itself in shadows. In one verse, the authors note there’s only a short distance from the river to the freeway leading back to the crowded, noisy city, “yet those few kilometers / allow us to dwell /in a very different world.” Reflecting time spent with family enjoying nature, these poems were conceived while Alma Flor Ada camped along the Yuba River with her daughter, Rosalma Zubizarreta-Ada, who created the English-language versions. With striking illustrations depicting the natural world, this bilingual picture book introduces children to both the joy of poetry and spending time outside.
Kirkus Reviews said: “A collection of 29 poems—each one standing for a letter in the Spanish alphabet—takes readers on a nature-filled journey punctuated by glimpses of butterflies, hummingbirds, frogs, the Milky Way, pebbles, and more. In Spanish, the poetry carries a lovely, lyrical, smooth, fluid, and rhythmic cadence. Utomo’s watercolors lend a dreamy quality … readers will feel the sun’s warmth and hear the rippling waters. Readers looking to strengthen their elementary Spanish or English vocabulary will appreciate this collection.”
ALMA FLOR ADA, Professor Emerita at the University of San Francisco and an expert on multicultural and bilingual education, is an internationally acclaimed children’s book author. Her books include My Name Is María Isabel (Athenaeum, 1995), which was named to the National Council of Social Studies and Children’s Book Council’s Notable Books; The Gold Coin (Atheneum, 1991), winner of a Christopher Medal; Under the Royal Palms (Atheneum, 1998), winner of a Pura Belpré Award; and Gathering the Sun (Harper Collins, 2001), recipient of a Once Upon a World Children’s Book Award from the Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance. She lives and works in Florida.
ROSALMA ZUBIZARRETA-ADA is a writer, organizational facilitator and author of From Conflict to Creative Collaboration. She is the co-author of The Woman Who Outshone the Sun (Children’s Book Press, 1991), wrote the English-language versions of the poems in Gathering the Sun (HarperCollins, 2001) and translated several other children’s books. She lives with her husband in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
GABHOR UTOMO was born in Indonesia, and received his degree from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco in 2003. He has illustrated a number of children’s books, including Kai’s Journey to Gold Mountain (East West Discovery Press, 2004) and Lupita’s First Dance/ El primer baile de Lupita (Piñata Books, 2013). Gabhor’s work has won numerous awards from local and national art organizations, and his painting of Senator Milton Marks is part of a permanent collection at the California State Building in downtown San Francisco. He lives with his family in Portland, Oregon.
ARTE PÚBLICO PRESS is the nation’s largest and most established publisher of contemporary and recovered literature by US Hispanic authors. Its imprint for children and young adults, Piñata Books, is dedicated to the realistic and authentic portrayal of the themes, languages, characters and customs of Hispanic culture in the United States. Based at the University of Houston, Arte Público Press, Piñata Books and the Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage project provide the most widely recognized and extensive showcase for Hispanic literary arts and creativity.